DEsign for healthy ageing: a smart system to decrease LONELINESS for older people (DELONELINESS)

Lead Research Organisation: King's College London
Department Name: Engineering

Abstract

Loneliness is a growing health concern in a rapidly ageing society. As Age UK noted in 2018, 1.4 million older people class themselves as often lonely, and it is estimated this will rise to 2 million people over the aged of 50 by 2025. Loneliness, typically defined as a "discrepancy between one's desired and achieved levels of social relations" is generally experienced by over one third of older people. The subjective feeling of loneliness has been associated with a range of negative outcomes including increased prevalence of physical and mental illness, all-cause mortality, and risk of self-harm. Whilst issues of loneliness may be overlooked by health and social service professionals, the COVID-19 pandemic could have accelerated these issues due to lockdown. Reduced access to social support networks, community events and family highlight the need to detect and support those who are lonely at home. It is of paramount importance to refine methods of identifying loneliness in those who are isolated to allow timely and effective intervention. This proposal aims to develop a smart monitoring and communication system with multifunctional electronics built into textiles used as wearables and home furniture to measure loneliness levels in older people.

The timely and accurate identification of loneliness of older people will enable informed care choices at home. The main objective of this research is to determine different levels of loneliness via bespoke multi-sensing monitoring. This could be used to identify those at risk of loneliness and highlight priorities for targeted intervention. Prompt actions to identify and help lonely older people would help to decrease the risk of developing serious healthcare issues and help support them to live independently.

DELONELINESS is an interdisciplinary project bringing academic experts from Social Gerontology, Psychology, Design, Smart Composite Material, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and industrial partners as well as policy makers to: (i) to understand the conditions of being lonely and (ii) to develop a smart system to measure and monitor loneliness. The diverse team represents individuals from a range of ethnicities, gender identifications and career stages.
 
Title Collage Activity for Co-Design 
Description Pre-printed patterns and outlines of the home environment and furniture were created as foundation for collaborative collages of people's home environment. Participants could indicate with pre-printed descriptors and colours, their preferred positioning of the 'Deloneliness' system in their home environment. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact This artefact will allow to better understand the end-user requirements and develop a portfolio of design principles and specifications to become useful to and usable for older adults. It helps older participants to visualize and communicate their envisioning of the system design. The functioning of this technique was already pilot tested and is in the process of refinement for the first workshop with older participants. 
 
Title Digital and Physical models and Representation of System Concept 
Description We created 3D-models and a system concept illustration to reflect the system functioning and all components for evaluation with participants. The visualizations will become part of the paper publications. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The concept prototypes helped participants visualize and comment on the technology. It also helped the team to discuss the currently planned sensor placement. 
 
Title Illustration of the Deloneliness System for Older People 
Description To communicate the system to the public and advertise the later exhibition of our project, an illustration has been developed. The illustration presents the functioning of the system that is developed as part of the research. At the center of the illustration we find a representation of an older lonely person. The system is consists of a smart textile, its embeddedness in furniture and wearables at home, and the AI interpretation thereof for receiving personalised support and health care. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The illustration is to be published in preparation for the exhibition of our project at the London design biennale 2023. Since no picture of our exhibits or a prototype exists at this stage, an drawing was necessary. An appealing visualization will help raise further interest in our exhibition by visitors and it will also help communicate the new research development that takes place. It is to be used for initial advertisement in the upcoming months. 
 
Title Video presenting the Deloneliness monitoring system 
Description The video shows the process of wearing and functioning of the loneliness monitoring system over time. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The video was completed for the exhibition at the Design Biennale 2023 and later used in co-design studies for discussion. An older man was involved as the main actor who very well represented the target group of the project. 
URL https://www.miragenews.com/kings-college-london-to-showcase-research-at-998575/
 
Title Wearable electronics design and optimisation 
Description We have helped design and optimisation of electronics with related data for WP1 and WP2 for design and the digital and physical models of the concept of a loneliness-monitoring system. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The wearable information is important to subjective research in WP1 for ageing people participation investigation to use smart wearables while the designed pattern and location for garment is determinant to the future exploitation opportunity for smart home based monitoring system, which is impacted with outcome of WP2. 
 
Description Enterprise & Engagement Fund
Amount £2,500 (GBP)
Organisation King's College London 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 07/2023
 
Description Research Seed Funding
Amount £800 (GBP)
Funding ID AC10818 
Organisation King's College London 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 07/2023
 
Description Housing Learning and Improvement Network 
Organisation Housing Learning and Improvement Network
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Bi-weekly meetings organised with project partners, Housing Learning Improvement Network, to update on the project and organise support for recruitment.
Collaborator Contribution The Housing LIN sent out a specific newsletter to members of network advertising opportunity for interview participants
Impact We have recruited 10 participants directly through Housing LIN and made contacts with independent living providers across the UK.
Start Year 2023
 
Description PPIE feedback from READ group 
Organisation South London and Maudsley (SLAM) NHS Foundation Trust
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution In October 2023, the Race, Ethnicity And Diversity Group (READ) at King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust was consulted on the DELONELINESS project.
Collaborator Contribution Four experts by experience provided feedback on recruitment methods for the qualitative interview study.
Impact Refinement of study poster to be more inclusive of experiences of loneliness.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Smart textile with integrated electronics with industrial developer 
Organisation KYMIRA Sports
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution As the focused work package on smart textile, we have identified the wearable electronics and their integration method for individual sensors.
Collaborator Contribution Kymira, who is industrial partner for smart garment, has met us and discussed the current limitation of the wearable electronics and the expected specification to be developed in this project.
Impact Depending on the collaboration, Kymira and my team have won an Innovate UK grant to develop smart garment for rehabilitation monitoring of knee, starting by Dec 2022. We also had co-publication by attending international workshop, Intake, at Birmingham by October/2023.
Start Year 2023
 
Title Smart textile wearables 
Description In work package on smart textile composite, we are currently working on the production of the technical products by designing and printing the individual sensors for emotion detection. This is the result of the identification of the appropriate sensors, the determination of the sensors' location for optimal measurements and the optimisation of the selected sensors which is still in progress. The physiological sensors, such as body temperature, ECG/EMG, motions' detection have been printed and tested while the hormone sensors are under design and fabrication for emotion analysis and monitoring. 
Type Of Technology Systems, Materials & Instrumental Engineering 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact This will impact onto the proposed smart home wearable electronics for garment and furniture design. The collected physiological and hormone data will be integrated within the AI programme to analyse and scale the loneliness. 
 
Description Blog Entry at the Campaign to End Loneliness 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The blog entry presents findings from a series of workshop with people from minoritized ethnic backgrounds.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/What-Does-the-Word-Loneliness-Mean-to-You-Understanding-Cult...
 
Description Engagement focused blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Engagement focused blog published by the Campaign to End Loneliness, exploring how technology can be used to measure loneliness, introduce the DELONELINESS project, and support recruitment for interview study.
The blog was shared on Twitter by the Housing LIN who have over 4,000 followers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/how-can-we-measure-loneliness-using-technology/
 
Description Exhibit at the Design Biennale 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We presented a concept design of a loneliness monitoring system and a produced video at the London Design Biennale 2023, which took place from the 1st to the 25th of June. London Design Biennale is a three-week long international exhibition and events programme located at historic Somerset House in the heart of London. Featuring world leading design innovation, creativity and research from participants across the globe, the Biennale champions the importance and universal relevance of design in contemporary life and culture.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/deloneliness-arcade
 
Description Seeking Connection Exhibition at the Bush House Arcade 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Our project was presented as part of the "Seeking Connection" exhibition (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/seeking-connection-living-well-with-technology-3), where different technology related projects from King's College London were presented. The exhibition lasted from the 1 November 2023 - 26 January 2024 and could be publicly accessed. There was an opening night with around 50 participants from the university and the public from different professional backgrounds.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024
URL https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/seeking-connection-living-well-with-technology-3